LIVING BY THE LAW OF LIFE

Three crucial words in Romans 7 and 8 are law,

life, and death. It is difficult even for scientists to
define life and death. In the Bible, death is spoken
of in a very definite way. First Corinthians 15:26
says that death is the last enemy, and Revelation
20:14, that death will be cast into the lake of fire.
In order for death to be cast into the lake of
fire, death must be concrete and tangible. In Rev­
elation 20 death is related to Satan on the one hand
and to Hades on the other, both of which are to
be cast into the lake of fire. This proves that Satan
is an actual person and that Hades is a definite
place. Therefore, death must also be something
concrete. Nevertheless, no one can adequately ex­
plain what death is.

FOUR LAWS
The matter of law is profound. Many Bible
students have been troubled by Paul’s use of the
word “law” in Romans 7. This word firstly denotes
the law of God, that is, the ten commandments
(7:22). Then in 7:23 Paul speaks of “the law of
my mind,” and in 8:2, of “the law of sin and of
death” and of the “law of the Spirit of life.” It is
difficult to understand the words “law” and “life”
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and even more difficult to understand the term
“the law of the Spirit of life.” Therefore, in chap­
ters seven and eight the word “law” is used in
different ways: for the law of God, for the law of
the mind, for the law of sin and of death, and
for the law of the Spirit of life.

ANOTHER LAW
In chapter seven, however, there is still an­
other law: “I find then the law that, at my will­
ing to do the good, the evil is present with me”
(v. 21). Before we can know the law covered in
this verse, we need to understand the law of God,
the law of the mind, the law of sin and of death
(which is in the law of sin in our members), and
the law of the Spirit of life. Learning these four
laws is like learning the basic principles of math­
ematics. The law in verse 21 is neither the law of
the mind nor the law of sin in our members. We
may call it “the law that.” There is a law, a prin­
ciple, that whenever we will to do good, the evil
is present with us. The law in 7:21 refers to this
principle.
Paul discovered the principle that whenever
he tried to do good, evil was present with him.
Have you ever realized that there is such a law?
If we do not try to do good, it seems that evil is
not present. But it is a law that whenever we try
to do good, the evil is present. For example, if you
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do not try to be humble, pride will not seem to
be present. But if you make up your mind to be
humble, pride will be present with you. Likewise,
if you do not make up your mind not to lose your
temper, your temper is not present. But whenever
you determine never to lose your temper again,
your temper is present immediately. This is “the
law that.” This law has no commandments, only
the principle that whenever we will to do good,
evil is present.
Not many Christians, including the seeking
Christians, know that there is such a law. How­
ever, we all have been troubled by the fact that
whenever we purpose to be patient, we fail. In­
stead of being patient, we become angry. In like
manner, whenever we make up our mind to be
humble, we end up being proud. Before we were
saved or when we were not diligent in seeking the
Lord, we seemed to be doing rather well. Later,
we learned that we should be a new person. I was
taught in this way. But the more I tried to live
like a new person, the more the old person was
present with me. Then I was taught to reckon
myself dead, and I practiced this teaching. How­
ever, the more I reckoned myself dead, the more
living I became. The more I tried to do good, the
worse I was.
I believe that we all have experienced this.
When we were careless, we apparently were all
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right. But when we desired to do good to please
the Lord, it seemed that our behavior became
worse. For example, a brother may say, “As a
Christian who loves the Lord, I should not lose
my temper with my wife or mistreat her. I will
ask the Lord to help me in this matter.” However,
shortly afterward, this brother loses his temper
with his wife.
I was bothered by matters like this for eight
years, from 1925 until 1933. During those years,
there were many times when I could not eat
or  sleep well because I was troubled about my
Christian life. Some with this problem have even
thought to stop being Christians and have said
to themselves, “I don’t want to be a Christian any
longer. I was told that if I became a Christian,
I would be happy. But now I am troubled every
day. I want to be humble, but instead I am proud.”
Through this kind of experience I was exposed,
unable to believe how evil I was. Through read­
ing the Bible and through my experience in the
Christian life, I have found that there is a law
operating in human beings that when we try to
do good, evil is present. When I discovered this
law, I realized that I should not be so foolish as
to keep on trying to do good. Trying to do good
is like pushing the button that causes evil to be
present. If you do not push the button, evil is not
here. But if you push it, evil comes immediately,
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eager to work. It was in 1933 that I first stopped
pushing this button. I found it difficult, however,
to keep from pushing it, for I had been pushing
it all my life. Although I know better than to push
this button, I must confess that sometimes I push
it even now. Probably you have pushed this but­
ton already today. Maybe we shall not stop this
completely until we are raptured or until we are
in the New Jerusalem.
Perhaps you have read Romans 7 again and
again without seeing this fifth law. In addition to
the four laws, there is the law that operates when­
ever we will to do good. We need to ask the Lord
to keep us from pushing this button, for when­
ever we push it, evil is present. If we try to be
patient, we push the button, and we are angry
instead. If we try to be humble, we push the
button again, and we are proud. Christians have
often prayed that the Lord would help them to
do good, to do such things as love their wives or
submit to their husbands. But we need to pray that
the Lord would keep us from trying to do these
things. Regarding this, we need a revelation, a
vision, that will keep us from pushing the button
that causes evil to be present with us.

THREE PERSONS AND THREE LIVES

Now we need to consider the law of good in
our mind, the law of sin in our members, and
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the law of life in our spirit. In the garden of Eden
there were two trees—the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil and the tree of life. In these two
trees we see good, evil, and life. With each of these
there is a law: the law of good, the law of evil,
and the law of life. We are a miniature garden of
Eden because the triangular situation involving
God, man, and Satan is now within us. Further­
more, the law of good, the law of evil, and the law
of life are all in us.
As far as persons are concerned, there are just
three beings in the universe: the divine person,
God; the evil person, Satan; and the human per­
son, man. Each of these persons has a life. The
divine person has the divine life, the human per­
son has the human life, and the evil person has
the evil life. Our human life does not come merely
from our parents; it comes from God’s creation.
Our human life was created when Adam was cre­
ated, not when we were born of our parents.
After his creation, man fell. At the time of the
fall, an evil life was injected into man’s body. As
we have pointed out, in the fall not only did man
do something wrong, but something evil entered
into him. For example, if a child drinks poison,
not only does he do something wrong, but some­
thing gets into him. By the fall the evil life of Satan
came into man’s body, and now this evil life is in
our flesh. Therefore, everyone, no matter whether
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he is a gentleman or a robber, has the human life,
which is good, and the satanic life, which is evil.
This is the reason that people can be both good
and evil, both kind and devilish. No one likes to
do evil things. But within us there is a person with
a life that likes to do evil. Therefore, Paul said, “For
the good which I will, I do not; but the evil I do
not will, this I practice” (7:19). This means that it
is no longer we who do certain things; rather, it is
an evil person with an evil life within us who does
those things.
Every human being is not only a son of Adam,
but also a child of the Devil. In John 8:44 the Lord
Jesus told the Jews, “You are of your father the
devil, and it is your will to do the desires of your
father.” Everyone has two fathers, a human father
and Satan as a father. One day after I had given
a message on this matter in Shanghai, a brother
asked me to stop saying that we are children of
Satan. Telling him that this did not originate with
me, I referred him to 1 John 3:10, which speaks of
“the children of the devil.” Since we are children
of the Devil, then certainly the Devil must be our
father. This was the reason the Lord Jesus said
that the Jews were of their father the Devil. There­
fore, all fallen human beings have two fathers,
each with a different life, the human father with
the human life and Satan as their father with the
satanic life.
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 Praise the Lord that our history does not stop
with the creation and the fall! We have been saved
and regenerated, born again. When Nicodemus
thought that being born again was to enter into
his mother’s womb and to be born, the Lord Jesus
answered that to be born again is to be born of the
Spirit: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).
Thus, to be born again means to be born of God
(John 1:13). Hallelujah, a third person, even God
Himself, has been born in us! With this divine
person we have the divine life.
The first person, the human person, is our
being, our self. This person is in our soul, which
is represented by our mind. The life of this per­
son is primarily in the mind. The second person,
the satanic person, is in our body, that is, in our
flesh. But praise the Lord that the third person,
the divine person, is in our spirit! As we all know,
man has three parts: a spirit, a soul, and a body. In
our soul we have the human person, in our body
we have the satanic person, and in our spirit we
have the divine person. How wonderful!
Christians are complicated. When I was young,
I was taught that believers have two natures: an
old nature and a new nature. Later I learned that
this understanding is not adequate. Every genu­
ine Christian has three persons with three lives.
God, Satan, and the self are all in us. Sometimes
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these three persons fight with one another. It is
impossible for them to be in harmony or have any
fellowship.

EVERY LIFE HAVING A LAW

Every kind of life has a law. A law denotes a
natural power with a certain tendency and activ­
ity. For example, we breathe because we are alive.
As long as we have life, the law of this life causes
us to breathe. We may use digestion as another
example. After we eat a meal, there is no need for
us to try to digest our food. Digestion is a matter
of law. Whenever we eat, the law of our physical
life functions to digest the food.
The same is true of animal life. Birds fly be­
cause it is the law of the life of a bird to fly. A bird
is not taught to fly; it is born with the life to fly.
Hence, it is natural for a bird to fly. You may frus­
trate the function of this law by putting a bird in
a cage. But once the door of the cage is open, the
bird will fly away. On the contrary, a cat can never
fly. No matter how much you command a cat
to fly, even threatening to punish it, it will still
not be able to fly because it does not have a life
with a law of flying. However, because a cat has
a mouse-catching life, it naturally chases mice.
Dogs bark because they have a barking life with
a barking law. There is no need to teach a dog to
bark; a dog barks naturally and spontaneously
9
because its life is filled with the tendency and
activity of barking.
Turning from animal life to plant life, we may
take fruit trees as another illustration of the fact
that every life has a law. I am not very good at dis­
tinguishing one kind of fruit tree from another.
However, it is easy to discern a tree by its fruit.
An apple tree will, of course, bear apples, and an
orange tree will bear oranges. What nonsense it
would be to command the apple tree to bear
oranges and the orange tree to bear apples! No
one would ever be foolish enough to do this. An
orange tree bears oranges, and an apple tree bears
apples. An orange tree has the life of an orange
tree, in which there is the law that functions in
the bearing of oranges.
In like manner, there is no need to teach a
carnation to bear carnation blossoms instead of
cherry blossoms. In fact, there is no need even
to teach it to blossom. If someone tried to teach
a carnation to blossom and a carnation could
speak, it would say, “Don’t waste your time teach­
ing me to blossom. Simply leave me alone and
let me grow. Eventually, I will blossom.” Blossom­
ing comes from the law of the carnation life. All
these examples show that every life has a law.

THREE LIVES AND THREE LAWS

Because we Christians have three lives, we also
10
have three laws. We have the human life, which
is good. With this good life we have the law of
good. Because of this law, everyone naturally de­
sires to do good; there is no need for anyone to
be taught. We were born with the desire to do
good, and every child has a human life with its
law of good. However, as we have seen, man has
not only the human life, but also the satanic life
with its law of evil. Because of this satanic life in
man, a child tells lies spontaneously, without
being taught. In fact, Christian parents always
teach their children not to lie. I taught my chil­
dren not to lie, but they lied anyway. For exam­
ple, I instructed my children not to play with the
water that was used for washing. One day I came
in and found one of the children playing with the
water. Immediately he put his hands behind his
back. Instead of rebuking him or punishing him,
I said to myself, “This is fallen man. What good
does it do to rebuke him?” You may command a
bush not to produce thorns, but it will bear thorns
nonetheless. This is the law of the life of a thorn
bush. In like manner, children lie without being
taught to lie because the life of Satan with its law
of lying is in them. When they tell lies, children
are simply living according to this law of lying.
We may need to be taught how to read but not
how to lie. In principle, for fallen people to lie is
the same as for cats to chase mice. Both are the
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activity of the law of the life that is in them. Now
we can understand why we do the opposite when
we will to do good. We have two lives in us, the
human life and the satanic life, and each life has
its law. But the law of the satanic life is stronger
than the law of the human life.
Praise the Lord that we also have the divine
life! Of the three lives in us, the divine life is the
strongest, and the human life is the weakest.

LIVING BY THE LAW OF LIFE

What we do in our daily living depends upon
the law we are living by. To do good is a law, to
do evil is another law, and to live by life is still
another law. Do not think that you can do any­
thing without a law. Everything we do as Chris­
tians in our daily living is a function of one of the
laws. Suppose I become angry at a brother. I may
try to suppress my anger and say to myself, “Al­
though you are angry with this brother, you must
not show it. If you lose your temper, you will also
lose your face and cause a problem.”
Such behavior is not genuine; it is political.
Furthermore, it cannot last very long. Some who
suppress their anger develop stomach trouble as
a result. Although we may be political in this way,
eventually the law of the satanic life will cause us
to lose our temper. To suppress our temper is to
play politics; to lose it is to live according to the
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law of sin. If we are genuine, real, and frank,
whatever we do or say will be a function of one
of these laws.
Everything is determined by the law we live
by each day. If we live by the human life, the law
of the human life will function. However, the
human life is weak, and its law is fragile because
of the presence of the law of the satanic life, which
is much stronger. Hallelujah, we have the strong­
est law in us, the law of the Spirit of life! We
should  live not by our human life but by the
divine life.
In Romans 8 Paul says that we should walk
according to spirit. To walk according to spirit is
to live by the divine life. When we live by the
divine life, the law of this life, the strongest law,
works within us. No law can defeat the law of the
divine life. By this law we are freed from every
difficulty. Do not be concerned about your prob­
lems. As long as you walk according to the spirit
and live by the law of the divine life, this law will
work for you spontaneously.
We all need to be reminded to push the right
button, not the button which causes “the law that”
to function. Do not try to love your wife, for in
your human life you simply cannot do it. Instead,
put your finger on the right button, the law of the
Spirit of life. If you do this, you shall love your
wife spontaneously. Likewise, sisters, do not try
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to submit to your husbands. The more you try to
do this, the less you will be able to submit. Rather,
press the right button, and you will submit to your
husbands automatically.
The right button is in our spirit. The Spirit
witnesses with our spirit (8:16), and the button
is the Spirit of God Himself. Day by day and hour
by hour, we must keep our finger on this button.
To do this is to have our mind set on the spirit
and to walk according to the spirit. Never take
your finger off the button of the Spirit. If you
keep your finger on the button, you will be in
the spirit, the Spirit will be life to you, and every
negative thing will be put to death.
The secret to keeping our finger on the right
button is to know that we have a human spirit
and that the Spirit of life is in our spirit. We need
to turn our mind, our whole being, to the spirit
and to set our mind there. Then we shall walk
according to the spirit. When we do this, all the
negative things are spontaneously put to death,
and we enjoy the divine life. As we do this, the
desire for good by the human life with its law of
good is satisfied, and the requirements of the law
of God are fulfilled. Furthermore, the evil law of
the satanic life is defeated. All is a matter of law.
Do not try to love or to do good. Instead, turn
your being to your spirit and keep your finger
on the right button, that is, on the Lord Himself,
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who is everything to us as the Spirit of life. In
this way you will enjoy Him, and you will live by
the law of the Spirit of life.

This booklet is compiled from

Life-study of Romans
© 1981 Living Stream Ministry
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